Urban75 Home About Offline BrixtonBuzz Contact

Coronavirus - worldwide breaking news, discussion, stats, updates and more

Does anybody know anybody who works in or studies public health communication, panic, confidence in the message, and stuff like that?

Because really todays live updates page from The Argus is a fine thing to study. Thats where the awful readers comment I posted earlier came from, and its been a giddy mix of news, various messages from public figures, reader opinion, some random tweets, and a journalist getting frustrated when trying to get through to NHS communication team (and/or local/regional Clinical Commissioning Group). With some info thrown in about a study that said incubation could even be up to 24 days. Oh and this image of tomorrows front page.

11010972.jpg

 
Does anybody know anybody who works in or studies public health communication, panic, confidence in the message, and stuff like that?

Because really todays live updates page from The Argus is a fine thing to study. Thats where the awful readers comment I posted earlier came from, and its been a giddy mix of news, various messages from public figures, reader opinion, some random tweets, and a journalist getting frustrated when trying to get through to NHS communication team (and/or local/regional Clinical Commissioning Group). With some info thrown in about a study that said incubation could even be up to 24 days. Oh and this image of tomorrows front page.

11010972.jpg


I wrote and taught a uni module (STS) on Science, Society and the Media so have some idea of the literature.

The message management locally seems pretty grim, but tbh you need precisely zero expertise to see that.
 
I suppose I will continue to read their live pages for however many days they keep doing them, to see if the mix changes.

Their live page for today has now ended, with a final dollop, quoting this tory councillor.

 
Last edited:
Perhaps it would be reasonable to suggest that the state of local media in this country is not well suited to the challenge of communication on these issues. At least if we remain in a phase where so many of the concerns are focussed on a particular location and very limited numbers of cases, and the idea of containment.

Having said that, they arent really being given much to work with. In that there is no wonderful new certainty ready to be disclosed that will help, no great new measures up their sleeves that might reassure people. And the current UK advice runs the risk of suddenly ending up too far behind the curve. Not just advice, but diagnostic criteria etc, which still has a 'have they travelled to certain countries or had contact with known cases' at its heart. Which, on a day like today, leads some people to start asking whether Brighton needs to be added to the list of locations. Awkward moments ahead, when is the right moment to transition to a different phase? Maybe it will happen quickly, but if cases are only found intermittently then maybe things will drag on like they are now for a while, in which case issues of trust may build up alarmingly.
 
Had a quick look, seems more likely to be done under the Health and Social Care Act 2008, and the ability it grants the Secretary of State to make 'health protection regulations'. I havent read up on this properly yet, I will.

So it looks like that act included a bit which modified the Public Health (Control of Disease) Act 1984. Section 2A of this 1984 act has the tedious detail.

Here is the matching language detail.

Government announcement:

In accordance with Regulation 3, the Secretary of State declares that the incidence or transmission of novel Coronavirus constitutes a serious and imminent threat to public health, and the measures outlined in these regulations are considered as an effective means of delaying or preventing further transmission of the virus.

In accordance with Regulation 2, the Secretary of State designates Arrowe Park Hospital and Kents Hill Park as an “isolation” facility and Wuhan and Hubei province as an “infected area”.

( from Secretary of State makes new regulations on Coronavirus )

Bits from the 1984 act:

45C Health protection regulations: domestic
(1)The appropriate Minister may by regulations make provision for the purpose of preventing, protecting against, controlling or providing a public health response to the incidence or spread of infection or contamination in England and Wales (whether from risks originating there or elsewhere).

(3)Regulations under subsection (1) may in particular include provision—

(c)imposing or enabling the imposition of restrictions or requirements on or in relation to persons, things or premises in the event of, or in response to, a threat to public health.

(4)The restrictions or requirements mentioned in subsection (3)(c) include in particular—

(d)a special restriction or requirement.

(6)For the purposes of this Part—

(a)a “ special restriction or requirement ” means a restriction or requirement which can be imposed by a justice of the peace by virtue of section 45G(2), 45H(2) or 45I(2)

45D
(4)Regulations under section 45C may not include provision enabling the imposition of a special restriction or requirement unless—

(a)the regulations are made in response to a serious and imminent threat to public health, or

(b)imposition of the restriction or requirement is expressed to be contingent on there being such a threat at the time when it is imposed.

45G Power to order health measures in relation to persons
(1)A justice of the peace may make an order under subsection (2) in relation to a person (“P”) if the justice is satisfied that—
(a)P is or may be infected or contaminated,
(b)the infection or contamination is one which presents or could present significant harm to human health,
(c)there is a risk that P might infect or contaminate others, and
(d)it is necessary to make the order in order to remove or reduce that risk.

( from Public Health (Control of Disease) Act 1984 )

I'm not going to quote all the other relevant bits, so much detail is missing from this post. 45H and 45I are similar to the stuff relating to persons, but applying to things and premises. So the 'serious and imminent threat to human health' language used on Monday does indeed unlock the ability of justices of the peace to make orders relating to people, places and things. I havent read it all thoroughly but it looks like the various powers in this act can compel people to be isolated, quarantined, undergo medical examination, and various other things, but people cannot be compelled to undergo medical treatment or vaccination under these powers. If I read it properly then any 'new crimes' created under these powers cannot be punished by prison, but rather fines. And if its a quarantine/isolation order then there is the power for police to take the person to the appropriate location.
 
Perhaps it would be reasonable to suggest that the state of local media in this country is not well suited to the challenge of communication on these issues.

More than reasonable TBF, resources have been cut to the bone, I haven't kept up to date on numbers at The Argus, but it's a fraction of what it was, compared to when I worked for the company. About 12 years ago it was still selling around 32,000 copies a day, it's a little over 9,000 now, and the increase in digital advertising revenue is tiny compared to lost print revenue, cover price & advertising.


From that link:
Latest from the University of Sussex tonight
Sussex students are restricted to their dorms cuz of coronavirus i need to get tf outta here ASAP

Turns out a student has been quarantined after falling ill with suspected coronavirus, they have been tested, but results are not known/published yet. Let's hope they come back negative.

The West Sussex County Times is also reporting that emergency treatment pods have been set up at hospitals across Sussex to assess people presenting with coronavirus.
 
More than reasonable TBF, resources have been cut to the bone, I haven't kept up to date on numbers at The Argus, but it's a fraction of what it was, compared to when I worked for the company. About 12 years ago it was still selling around 32,000 copies a day, it's a little over 9,000 now, and the increase in digital advertising revenue is tiny compared to lost print revenue, cover price & advertising.



From that link:


Turns out a student has been quarantined after falling ill with suspected coronavirus, they have been tested, but results are not known/published yet. Let's hope they come back negative.

The West Sussex County Times is also reporting that emergency treatment pods have been set up at hospitals across Sussex to assess people presenting with coronavirus.

Think the West Sussex County Times are filling a little there - there was an official NHS directive last week to set up pods at all hospitals. It’s not just a Sussex thing. Not to downplay what’s going on in Brighton/Sussex, but it’s not something that was just done in response to this specific set of cases.
 
Philippines encourages cancellation of large crowd events.


Many places now saying avoid travel to Singapore.

 
Last edited:
1,013 deaths recorded now. 103 more in the last 24hrs. Recorded infections seem to be slowing. I doubt these figures give a very full picture of the situation.

The 'recorded infections seem to be slowing' stuff has certainly gained traction in the press today.

I have to ignore this trend until the reality is clearer. On the one hand its been some weeks since the lockdown measures, and those measures would certainly be expected to rob the virus of many potential candidates for infection. But on the other hand some models have tended to suggest a peak or plateau to come much later in February, not now.

And then there is the question of whether China has changed the criteria for reporting, and this is what is showing up in the stats, not a real phenomenon. I wanted to talk about this yesterday but there was some confusion about the exact nature of the changes. But since there press attention to the 'possible good news' today, I should at least make a passing reference to it.

eg this from Guardian live updates page:

Screenshot 2020-02-11 at 12.09.44.png
 
elbows - with such a widespread epidemic I’m really surprised to hear they are testing “people who show no symptoms”. I’d expected them to already be well beyond the point of having capacity to test all those who are showing symptoms!

By the way, I heard from the organiser of the trade show in Amsterdam which I was meant to be attending this week that 70 exhibitors have withdrawn, 50 of them Chinese companies. It remains to be seen how many visitors will have reached the same conclusion as me and decided not to risk international travel this week, but 70 exhibitors pulling out at the last minute from a total of around 1,300 companies exhibiting is unprecedented.
 
The 'super-spreader' from Hove has spoken out, so his name is out there now, which should help tracing people he's been in contact with.

What seems odd is that he claims to have fully recovered, despite only being quarantined in hospital for a few days & still there, whereas reports from China suggest recovery takes a number of weeks.

 
elbows - with such a widespread epidemic I’m really surprised to hear they are testing “people who show no symptoms”. I’d expected them to already be well beyond the point of having capacity to test all those who are showing symptoms!

I'd expect an uneven picture. But certainly one that includes testing some people with no symptoms, because I would expect some tests due to 'contact tracing' of people confirmed infected, and ongoing testing of people who ended up quarantined for various reasons. But there is no way for me to get a proper picture, so another reason not to take the stats literally.
 
Ok, well if they are still contact tracing with 40k infections then my respect for the Chinese just took another jump upwards!
 
Ok, well if they are still contact tracing with 40k infections then my respect for the Chinese just took another jump upwards!

I expect it to be patchy, but it probably is still happening, especially in places that didnt have a full on outbreak like Wuhan did yet.

Also depending on the symptoms criteria listed for this coronavirus, some people showing 'no symptoms' could still be showing some, just not 'the right ones'. I dont know, but even in an ideal world I would take these numbers with a pinch of salt. They might be showing a real trend, but that will only be obvious and safe knowledge to me with the benefit of hindsight.
 
What seems odd is that he claims to have fully recovered, despite only being quarantined in hospital for a few days & still there, whereas reports from China suggest recovery takes a number of weeks.

Would expect recovery time to be a spectrum. Especially with milder cases that do not have a deterioration phase after the first week+ of feeling ill. We dont know how ill this bloke got, probably not very, he was after all hospitalised upon testing positive, as opposed to being hospitalised due to some perilous state of health.
 
The idea of people being infectious before showing any symptoms never really went away, even though it remains mostly based on anecdotal evidence, the anecdotes kept coming. My own view is unchanged from last time we discussed this, I consider it plausible, and confusion about it is in part due to a failure to explore this possibility more with other infections historically. Probably in part because there is a natural bias towards things it is practical to detect and do something about.

Dr Griffin added that while it hasn’t been confirmed clinically yet, there is more and more anecdotal evidence to suggest the virus can be passed on prior to the onset of symptoms.

(from Guardian live page in an entry that mostly attempts to clarify the term super-spreader. Coronavirus live updates: two senior Hubei officials sacked as deaths pass 1,000 – latest news )
 
There has been some talk recently that there might be a high rate of false nagatives with one of the tests, but I never found good detail.

However this incident in the US could be a further sign of that:


After an initial CDC test showed all four patients did not have the novel coronavirus, they were released Sunday and returned to the 14-day federal quarantine at Miramar, the University of California, San Diego Health said in a statement.
"This morning, CDC officials advised San Diego Public Health that further testing revealed that one of the four patients tested positive for (novel coronavirus)," UC San Diego Health said in a statement. "The confirmed positive patient was returned to UC San Diego Health for observation and isolation until cleared by the CDC for release."
 
And on the 'symptomless spreaders' topic, part of the 'super-spreaders' statement might blow up this subject like never before:


I was advised to attend an isolated room at hospital, despite showing no symptoms, and subsequently self-isolated at home as instructed.
 
I work in the kitchen at a school in Brighton.
We have, today, been given hand sanitiser to use (on top of the normal handwashing) but that seems a bit lame when we have a cashless system, using fingerprints, for the kids (and in addition to that, they quite often don't work unless the kids blow on their finger first*). :facepalm:

I have mentioned this several times today, not in any mental, panic-stricken way, just quietly a bit... erm HELLO! :hmm: but it seems to have been largely ignored/played down (in favour of not panicking, I guess).
My manager told me she had suggested they santize the kids hands at the tills but that there was no way of ensuring that was done but the SLT member I spoke to was very upbeat/dismissive about the whole thing - that we should just be taking guidance from PHE, comparisons to flu/some stuff about people with weakened immune systems, which is not what seems to follow, neccesarily, going on the info from this thread - and I get that they don't want to scare anyone, particularly kids, but I'm also a bit wtf about it all, too. :confused:



*I quite often SUGGEST they do that :oops: although obvs not right now!
 
I just got this text from the doctors:

If you have symptoms of a cough, fever or shortness of breath and have recently returned from a South East Asian country, DO NOT COME TO THE SURGERY, instead call NHS 111

:hmm:

Yeah thats the standard message everywhere really, but some will be feeling the need to shout about it more than others right now!

eg when it was misreported in the press that the 'super-spreader' had turned up at A&E for help, the NHS went out of their way to point out that wasnt what happened, and to praise it as an example of what people should do.


Professor Keith Willett, NHS strategic incident director, said: “This patient did the right thing when they had concerns about coronavirus by calling NHS 111 for advice.

“After a telephone assessment, they were advised to make their way to Royal Sussex County Hospital Brighton for testing. Following a pre-arranged plan with the NHS they drove themselves to the hospital, were tested in isolation and away from public areas of the hospital, and returned home in isolation in their own car.

“Any travellers from China and the other specified countries who have a cough, fever, or shortness of breath are advised to follow the example of this patient and call NHS 111 for advice.”

And for quite some time now, advice to GPs etc was that if someone turned up who fitted the initial criteria, they should be ushered into a side room and asked to call 111 on their mobile phone.

And hospitals were asked to have their 'pod' areas where cases could be isolated ready by last Friday I think it was.
 
So it’s “Covid-19”


Catchy.

It sounds more like the sort of thing I'd be hearing about if I was reading up on a nuclear disaster. 'The half-life of Covid-19 is 128 years, and prior to the knokitov treaty it contaminated a large part of the globe via the very fissile missile program test detonations'.
 
Back
Top Bottom